


Yeah?  Say that in Punjabi.

by offensiveagentpie



Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Endearments, First Kiss, Foreign Language, Love Confessions, M/M, Pining, Teasing, a bit of angst on matt's part but what else is new?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-20
Updated: 2015-11-20
Packaged: 2018-05-02 13:45:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5250362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/offensiveagentpie/pseuds/offensiveagentpie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Foggy's just teasing him Punjabi, right?  </p><p>So why does everything he say come across as a lie?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Yeah?  Say that in Punjabi.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a [headcanon that I had a while back](http://offensiveagentpie.tumblr.com/post/132870868910). Aided and abetted by [smallscreensidekick](http://archiveofourown.org/users/smallscreensidekick/pseuds/smallscreensidekick). Thank you again for the edit and the encouragement!
> 
> Also, to be noted, all sections of phrases in italics are being said in Punjabi. I cannot speak or read the language, so that's how I opted to portray it.

“Come on, you’ve got to know at least something. Not even, ‘where’s the bathroom?’ Everyone should know that in whatever language they learn,” Matt wheedles, poking Foggy’s knee with his toe. They’re sprawled on their dorm room floor studying…or at least trying to. Foggy has flopped down onto his back in defeat and Matt has taken to teasing him about his Punjabi class.

“Why are you so gung-ho on hearing me mangle a foreign language, Murdock?”

“I like your voice,” he says truthfully, simply. Foggy’s heart picks up a bit. Matt pretends not to feel secretly thrilled about it. “I wanna hear what it sounds like speaking Punjabi. But, I mean, I guess you’re pretty hopeless if you can’t even remember how to tell a girl she’s hot.”

Matt can tell by the way Foggy sucks in a breath, all prepared and determined, that he’s won. Foggy is never one to back down from a challenge like that.

“Hopeless he says. A guy gets tipsy one night, forgets a bit of a very difficult second language and he’s hopeless. Well sir, I’ll have you know that I can say something in Punjabi…”

There’s a pause. “Go on then,” Matt urges.

Foggy groans. “Give me a minute; I’m not good on the spot.”

Matt huffs out a laugh, “Boy, did you pick the wrong profession.”

“Shut up. Okay, here goes… _You are the best friend that I’ve ever had_.”

It comes out a bit slow, as Foggy takes his time to carefully think and form the sounds, but it has a nice flow to it. It sounds good in Foggy’s voice. Matt makes a face as though he’s evaluating the sentence, “Not bad, what does that mean?”

“Uh…it means ‘You are a huge nerd,’” Foggy says with a bit of hesitation. His pulse trips a bit…he’s lying.

Matt doesn’t put too much thought into it. It could just be a slightly different translation. Not quite the same meaning. Languages are like that.

“Thanks,” he says drily. “I’m glad you can now insult me in two languages.”

Foggy laughs, full and rich and god, Matt loves that laugh. “That’s the goal, buddy. I’ll have to pay extra attention in class just so I can continue to roast you.”

 

-oOo-

 

Apparently he does.

Because for the next few weeks, Foggy slips in all sorts of little Punjabi phrases into their conversations and every time Matt asks for the meaning, Foggy translates it to be some friendly slight against him.

A few (‘You big dork’ and ‘Shut up, smart ass’) become favorites, especially when Matt is soundly beating him at mock debates. They’re said with fondness…but they’re lies.

All of them.

Matt can’t quite figure it out. Foggy’s heartbeat always speeds up slightly when he says them. Sometimes his face will grow warm and other times, Matt can smell a hint of salt in the air as Foggy’s palms sweat slightly. Any time he says something new and Matt asks for the meaning, Foggy just gives him more lies. Matt has started to believe that the lies go beyond slightly different meanings across the language barrier.

He spends a lot of idle time wondering how to go about figuring out the true translations. Trying to type it out phonetically on his computer into an online translator probably won’t work and he doubts that there are any Braille-Punjabi dictionaries lying around. So he sits on it for a while, trying to figure out a way to get to the bottom of things.

He’d ask Foggy, but he clearly doesn’t want the true meanings to be known. And besides, it’s not affecting anything; Foggy isn’t acting any different so it’s not a top priority.

That is until one day, when Matt (supposedly) calls Foggy a huge dork for rattling off some Star Trek trivia.

When he says it, Foggy drops the can of grape soda he’s drinking and curses as it spills on the floor. His pulse is racing and his temperature has gone up. To say Matt’s curiosity is peaked is an understatement.

“How’d you learn that?” Foggy asks and his voice is wavering slightly, his blood still thrumming hard and fast.

“What? You call me a big dork all the time. I picked it up just from hearing you.”

Foggy lets out a gust of relieved air. “Oh, yeah. Should have known those keen ears of yours would have picked up the sounds.”

It’s a flimsy cover-up but Matt lets it slide. He does, however, keep using the phrases he’s picked up with Foggy. He also keeps note of how strongly Foggy seems to react to them. It’s not a nervous thing. If anything, Foggy seems pleased…even aroused at times. But that could be Matt projecting his own hopes onto the situation.

 

-oOo-

 

It’s near the end of the semester when Matt finds Foggy’s notes. He’s sorting through the mess of papers on their desk, skimming his fingers over notebooks to find his Braille study sheets when he feels the hard press of a pen spelling out the words ‘You are the hottest guy I’ve ever seen,’ followed by strange figures he can’t recognize. 

Brow furrowed, his fingers delicately trace along the page, finding pronunciation guides written beneath the unknown letters…and his face instantly goes hot. Apparently, earlier that morning, Foggy definitely did not say ‘get your nose out of a book for once.’ In fact, as he continues feeling out the pen indents on the page, Foggy has been doing the exact opposite of insulting him this entire time.

‘Shut up, smart ass’ is ‘you mean the world to me’ and ‘you huge dork’ is basically ‘sweetheart’. Warmth and hope blooms in his chest as he gets to the bottom of the page, where ‘I love you’ is surrounded by ‘JUST TELL HIM ALREADY, NELSON’ scrawled harshly in English.

Matt can’t stop tracing the words, feeling out the shape of Foggy’s writing, fingers touching words that he wants to hear so badly…but the moment is broken when Foggy comes back to the dorm with the take-out they ordered. Matt hurries to shove the notes aside and lays his text book out and opened on the desk in their place. He’s thankful that Foggy doesn’t have super sensitive hearing because his heart is pounding.

 

-oOo-

 

Foggy doesn’t say it. 

Foggy starts dating Marci and the ‘playful insults that are secretly sweet talk’ nearly come to a complete stop. Matt struggles and fails not to feel devastated. Occasionally, he’ll think about bringing it up but that would be weird, right? Even though they weren’t meant maliciously, telling your friend that you miss being insulted by him isn’t normal.

Another part of him wants to come clean about it all, to tell Foggy that he knows what all the phrases really mean and that he returns the sentiment, and that he found out because, hey…guess what? I have super senses!

But that’s not an option. Because Foggy is dating Marci and the endearments have stopped and Foggy is happy and his pulse barely races for Matt anymore and it’s all fine.  


It’s fine.

 

-oOo-

 

Years pass.

Break-ups, graduations, internships, business ventures and confessions all happen. And despite every foundation of their friendship being broken, nearly beyond repair, Matt finds himself on his couch on a Friday evening, Foggy sitting close to his left with his legs flopped comfortably over Matt’s lap. Everything about him is relaxed and at ease and Matt is overjoyed that he’s been lucky enough to regain this in his life.

“So, how did the visit to the bodega go?” he asks, absentmindedly tapping his fingers against one of Foggy’s knees. It’s just friendly closeness…and he’s glad to have it after everything that happened, but Foggy being willing to mend bridges instead of burning them has awakened the part of Matt that desperately wishes that they really will be together ‘for better or for worse’ in the more than friends way. It still aches like it did in law school, but it’s familiar and Matt will take anything as long as Foggy’s in his life.

Foggy’s leg twitches, Matt knows his knees are ticklish so he takes advantage and wiggles his fingers harder. It earns him a squirm and a choked out laugh. “I’ll tell you but, let me just say, ninja powers or no, Matt, my reflexes are good and I have no qualms about kicking a blind man,” Foggy says, voice full of mock warning.

“Sorry, counselor,” Matt says with a smile, patting Foggy’s knee and letting his hand rest there. “Do continue.”

“Thank you,” he replies, pompously. “Anyway, the questioning went great. Turns out that the clerk is more than happy to be a witness and, Mr. ‘I get to impress numerous clients with my suave Spanish skills,’ I’ll have you know that I got to flex my Punjabi muscles today.”

Matt’s eyebrows jerk up. _There’s_ something he hasn’t thought about in a while. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, turns out she’s fluent. And she told me that, while I might speak it slowly, I have a lovely way with the words.”

Matt grins, once again happy that Foggy can’t hear his own heart as it speeds up a bit. “I’ll take her word for it. All I ever got to hear was attacks against my character,” he hopes his voice doesn’t sound as tense and nervous as he feels.

Foggy laughs, but it’s strained. “Yeah! I forgot all about that. What was the one? Uh… _you mean the world to me_.”

His pulse does a little skip and Matt decides to just get it over with. If they made it through the Daredevil reveal, then surely they can make it through this. The papers branded him as The Man Without Fear, so he’s gonna act like it.

“ _I love you_ ”.

Foggy doesn’t breathe for a second. Matt hears him swallow, his pulse racing, temperature on the rise, hands sweating. “I…I don’t think I ever taught you that one,” he says quietly. But if Matt’s not mistaken, there’s a note of hope in his voice.

“No,” Matt answers. “I…I found your notes one day and…”

“I wrote them though," Foggy interrupts. "How did you—wait, don’t tell me. You felt the indents from the pen?”

Matt can’t help but quirk his lips. Foggy’s still coming to terms with a lot of what he can do, but he always seems to be a step ahead now that he knows.

“Wow,” Foggy mumbles, part awe and part disbelief.

Matt shrugs.

“So…you knew then? What all of the things I said meant?”

“Yes, but I found the notes after I learned how to say them by sound. I didn’t realize what I was saying--“

“Oh,” Foggy interrupts, sounding a bit crestfallen.

“I didn’t mean it like that, I mean…” Matt takes a deep breath, fingers toying with the outer seam of Foggy’s jeans. “I know what it was that I just said…and I definitely meant that.”

“…oh,” Foggy says again, tone very different. He pauses, Matt can hear the rustle of his hair against his collar as he rubs the back of his neck. “I was going to tell you back then but, honestly, I chickened out. I met Marci, decided to give it up as a lost cause, but well…” Both of their hearts are pounding. Matt holds his breath. “ _I love you too_.”

Matt’s hand is dislodged as Foggy sits up and slides closer to him. Turning towards Foggy, Matt can feel his breath on his face. “Always have, always will, buddy…even though it’s probably against my better judgement.” Matt can tell by the tone of Foggy's voice that he’s smiling. He finds himself beaming as well.

“You’re not gonna kiss me, are you?” he asks teasingly.

“I don’t know,” Foggy’s voice is getting quieter and closer. “I’m definitely feeling a little something…”

They meet in the middle, and the kiss is a bit awkward since they’re both smiling, but it’s amazing and Matt doesn’t want it to end but he pulls back to ask, “How do you say ‘it’s about damn time’ in Punjabi?”

“I’ll look it up later,” Foggy laughs as he tackles him down onto the sofa.

**Author's Note:**

> Can also be found [at my tumblr](http://offensiveagentpie.tumblr.com/post/133600373230).


End file.
